Medium to heavy rainfall cools Delhi, more rain likely at weekend

New Delhi, Apr 4 (UNI) Medium to heavy rainfall today caught Delhiites unawares, plummeting the mercury and maintaining the cool weather in the city since early this week.

Accompanied by thunderstorms, the rainfall, which hit Delhi this afternoon, brought down the maximum temperature in the Capital city to 30.5 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal.

The minimum also dipped to 17 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.

A total of 18.6 mm of rainfall was recorded in the Safdarjung area while 5.6 mm rain was recorded in the Palam region.

Overall, it was another cool and cloudy day for the people of Delhi.

The rainfall, while bringing coolness in the air, also caused waterlogging in several areas including ISBT, Patparganj in east Delhi, Defence colony and Moolchand in South Delhi, Pusa Road and Inderpuri.

An MCD spokesperson said a total of 20 complaints of waterlogging were recieved by the corporation.

Weathermen attributed the rain and thundershowers to a fresh cyclonic circulation caused by a strong Western disturbance over Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Uttaranchal and Himachal.

The cool weather in the city is likely to persist for next couple of days, with weathermen forecasting rain or thundershowers at many places across Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi during the next two to three days.

They have also forecast isolated thundersquall activity, accompanied with hail, over Jammu, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim during the next 48 hours.

The Met office has forecast a generally cloudy sky in Delhi during the next 24 hours with one or two spells of rain and thundershowers in a few areas.